Paradise in every bite

We started of with an introduction towards our dissertation project which began on the 10th of December on a Watsapp group with a very wild brain storming session of unrealistic menus and dishes that ended up with deciding on a date for our first unofficial meeting on the 14th of December at burgers and more where we segregated departments required for functioning:-

Marketing
Finance
F&b
Purchase
Kitchen
Housekeeping

The first official meeting took place on the 19th of December where the first set of team leaders were chosen on the basis of votes :-

General manager - Joshua Devarajan
F&b Manager - Kumar Keshav
Rachit, Riya, Anirudh, Adwait
Executive chef - Jerone Jose
Sous-Joshua
Marketing - Malvika Prabhu
Pooja,Piyush,Adwait,Pankti,Kuhn,keshav
Finance Head - Evani kochar
Girish,Kshitz,Angad
Human Resource - Angad
Malaika,Bhumika
Buffers- Ayush,Bhumika,Anshika

The first meeting included discussing ideas for a menu and brainstorming on ideas, working on ways to implement 22 different opinions and thoughts towards perfect execution.

We had a very slow start towards this project as everyone was so excited about it that we jumped from topic to topic in a span of minutes ending up with no conclusions at all. But slowly we finally understood that to help our team progress we need to take baby steps as non of us have done this before so we started with taking a look at what our predecessors did, which was very helpful knowing how smartly they created the menu, unfortunately we were still very stuck up towards creating a menu, that’s when we came up with the first idea that was serving breakfast stalls which almost took up an entire meeting but ended up not working out.

On 20 December We came up with our first ever agenda that was to choose our target market we chose college students as a target audience

We created a customer profile that included spending power, preferably timings, preferred cuisines etc.

We also discussed about marketing overview, finance overview, formats required, name of the organization and how much investment is required.

How we decided the name?

We came up with an idea of serving food that may sound simple but would look beautiful on the plate and give the customer an experience they would not be able to get anywhere else in the vicinity of of lavale.

It took us a very long time To decide upon a name we went from Nirvana to 22 eat Street to kaosis,to aroma to at least 15 different names until we could finally shortlist three names that were

Experiment 2.0
The Trip
Eden

But still in between came a lot more names like ventitude that everyone really liked and then was decided to ventitude

That eventually changed to Eden the very next day
So on the 22nd of December Eden was born.
Which was our first decision taken together as a team.

So we finally agreed on a name for our restaurant, next was to decide on tag line

That wasn’t our primary objective at the moment we needed a name so that we could send out a questionnaire to know what the market around us would want from symbiosis school of Culinary Arts.

So after a questionnaire We had the most challenging task to do that was to make people reply on the Eden group we constantly tried working out on menus and recipes with food costs throughout till operations. On the 2nd of January,2020we came up with the logo and template for Eden On the 4th of January,2020 official email IDs Were made for team leaders That’s was when we started with the paperwork for eden and on the 8th of January, 2020 we finally came up with the tagline

Eden-paradise in every bite.

The tagline wasn’t in the only thing, our tentative menu was also ready. Once our menu was decided it was all about our food costs and obviously there were constant changes made in the menu that led to a lot of bickering amongst the team members since everyone wanted give their opinion but weren’t ready to listen because of which there were a lot of internal problems and were affecting the efficiency of team Eden.

Even though there was a lot of tension amongst the team members productivity never stopped and on the 18th of January, 2020 our first business draft was ready.

By this time there were a lot of changes made with the teams as teams leaders as well as members were continuously switching due to inefficiency which also led to a constant change in workflow.

On Wednesday i.e. 22nd January, 2020 Eden had its first post on Instagram

on 24th Jan an investment of 5000 per individual was decided.

The following days went on with practical’s and daily meetings that were mostly very aggressive and included a lot of fight and arguments. The blame game was one of the latest trends introduced in our Eden group.

As our time of operations were coming closer and closer day by day the pressure was building on everyone this was the time when people started to recognise who actually cares about this project and who doesn’t eventually we understood the fact that not everyone will love their job as much as you love yours and if you need to take matters in your hands and get work done, you can’t help it but do it yourself. At the end of the day you will understand that you’ve only gained and lost nothing and that feeling of accomplishment is something extraordinary and unique.

On the 11th of February the kitchen team and F&b teams were decided

Kitchen

Jerone
Joshua
Angad
Piyush
Adwait
Kushal
Kshitiz
Aayush
Evani
Ashna
Malaika
Kuhu
Anshika

Food & Beverage

Keshav
Rachit
Riya
Pankti
Bhoomika
Aniruddha
Pooja
Shridharan
Akanksha
Vishnu
Shubhankar
Anitej
Akshita
Sunay
Yash
Saumya
Arini

14th February,2020 we got our first proper menu draft. We were lucky enough to get our own aprons and T-shirt’s also printed for us at no cost. Which was very nice!

Kitchen duties : Duty allocations:
Starters

Evani head
Malvika
Jalapeno poppers
Amritsari fish and chips
Fries

Mains:

Angad head
Kushal
Chicken pepper curry
Kadai paneer
Goan fish and prawn curry
Jeera rice
Lemon coriander soup

Wok:

Joshua (head)
Ayush
Adwait
Thai basil veg and non veg
Chicken stir fry
Fried rice
Sweet corn soup

Italian:

Malaika
Piyush
Kshitiz
Pizza, Pastas, Sides, Salads and breads: Watermelon and curd salad. Mexican salad, Breads
Anshika head
Kuhu

Dessert:

Ashana head
Chocolate tart
Thandai Mousse cake

So the team has finally completed with the printing of posters on the 22nd of February we’ve started putting up posters all around campus making sure that everyone within this vicinity is aware of what Eden is not Only posters but the banner was also released at Symbi-Eat on the 23rs of February this was just the beginning towards our journey.

So we finally start with our trials on the 24th of February which went very smoothly our assumptions were very vague and highly inaccurate but fortunately we had the time to make corrections when it came to the menu, decorations, printings etc.. and finally we were ready on the 28th.

Eden opened its doors on the 29th of February, 2012 the next eight days were very challenging filled with sleepless nights and struggles.

Since this was the first time that anyone had done something like this it was very crucial to understand that not everyone has the capacity or capability to stand on their toes all day and give a hundred percent, may it be physically or even mentally.

The first hurdle we faced was not getting enough customers on our first two days, we understood that our marketing was fine but we couldn’t reach out to the people on how should they come to our restaurant, on day 2 right after service we divided half of our team and sent them out to market Eden while the other half stayed back for service and ways to improve on dishes and work on our second strategy that was to introduce specials in our menu, since our menu was very basic and didn’t have room for expressing what we really wanted to show to customers, we made up for it with our specials menu. The special menu was changed every day and used only excess and waste ingredients which was a big win for us since we earned most of our revenue from this part of the menu. But this wasn’t the only challenge we faced the biggest fault happened on day 2 when we had a problem with our kots, this fault was noted down and was rectified immediately fortunately it did not happen again since there was a change in the system and work flow.

Every day after service ended all team leaders would have a meeting and discussed the challenges faced during service, we would share and try to implement measures to improve on our quality each and every day.

We followed the same routine for the first 4 days with sending half of the team out to market and half would stay back for service, we also put up banners outside our vicinity to help attract customers, drawings were made on roads to guide them where to come a routine that followed towards service helped the team familiarize themselves with the work flow which saw a consistent development in the food that was served and the service that was offered.

finally, Eden was recognized by the entire campus by day 4 we came up to a point where people knew more about us than any other venture in the campus, we didn’t have to go on inviting people since the power of word of mouth was so strong.

It not only was our marketing that spoke to the people but also our food we received outstanding reviews from our customers for the dishes we served and the service we offered including the ambience of the restaurant was so good that we had guest coming On a daily basis getting more and more people day by day from that day onwards Eden had a full house for every dinner service Eden could really stand up to its forum of giving an experience that you wouldn’t get anywhere else Besides that we also had the honor of serving our vice chancellor of symbiosis and the ambassador of Yemen. Which was an experience in itself.

As Eden came up to an end we had still had our last and most important service day that was the women’s day special. It was an exclusive lunch served that included only one TDH menu and special menu. We face the same challenge that we did on the first day on operations but this time we took matters in our own hands and made sure there wouldn’t be any delay in our service.

There was a smooth flow in our service and the lunch menu was an absolute hit. when it came to dinner we followed the same menu with some extra add ons and by the end of it Eden was a grand success.

The feeling of accomplishment that you could see in everyone’s eyes was extraordinary the happy smiles, tears of joy, the sad faces knowing it was over, at the very moment you could see everyone’s face and understand what they were feeling, knowing we’ve done something that no one else could ever even dream of,that feeling was really something very special. It was a journey with a lot of mishaps, fights, tears but at the end of the day all those problems did not matter, what mattered was knowing that 22 of us worked out a venture that we’ve been dreaming of for the past 3 months and created something that we could proudly call our baby we knew that this was now a part of us a part of each and every single one of us, the memories we’ve created, the joys and sorrows we’ve shared, the time we all spent together as a family is something we would happily do again.

Besides this on behalf of team Eden I’d like to thank CHEF ATUL, CHEF HEMANTH AND CHEF MANOJ FOR MENTORING US THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE PROCESS FROM START TO END THROUGHOUT DIFFICULT TIMES.

I would like to thank chef Karan, chef Pankaj, chef Bhushan, chef shamal, chef Rizwan and also Hitesh sir for their constant guidance and having patience with us since we can sometimes be a little rowdy batch. But besides all of that we are very thankful for being students of SSCA and moreover prod to be your students Eden really made us into a family and as our final year comes to an end we know that in the future years wherever we may be, however we may be may it be still in this industry or any other place we would look back at our college years at SSCA and remember the times at Eden and smile knowing this will remain a memory to cherish forever.